This is inspired by Solene's "open letter" to Open Source and free developers
and something I decided not to keep to myself until I've read it. You can find
it here: 

[gopher://dataswamp.org/1/%7esolene/article-dear-developers]

Dear developers, any kind of developer, anyone who got his hand "dirty" in the
wonderful world of computing science and electronics.

Get a fucking grip. Seriously.

Why you think humans built machines? To do what human themselves are slow or not
capable to do of course. It's pretty obvious and simple answer.
So what you are supposed to do is to fullfill needs through the use of computers.

Are you really aware of what boils down?

IT technology and semiconductors industries are not in their infancy anymore. Just like radios 
and TVs: they were supposed to allow anyone to hear and see music, news, movies, culture and 
so on but now those are mere brainwashing tools in the hands of corporations, governments, 
huge religious entities and the like. People have the illusion of being free by being 
empowered by internet, by computer themselves... They all ignore the very same problem behind 
it.

It's nothing by people for people with people's interests in mind when someone or something 
see it as an opportunity to make money or exploit people.
And this is a so widespread concept that's true almost everywhere.

Have you ever asked yourself why there are less long lasting devices nowadays then some 
decades ago? Is because many, if not all, companies are outsourcing to Asian factories (where 
the mold on their roof has more rights than their workers)? Is because technology is advancing 
so rapidly that everything turns to be outdated (and then unsuitable to accomplish some tasks)?

Do you really need a eight-core 4GHz, 256GiB of RAM, 2TiB internal memory smartphone to share 
cat photos, being bothered by notification of "friends" taking a dump or shoot photos of 
yourself in front of the mirror in a bathroom?

Do you really believe that a damn thin laptop with soldered CPU and RAM cooled by a forced air 
flow taken from under the keyboard built with unreplaceable custom sized batteries is 
something designed for you to last?

What makes you convinced that a house filled with hi-tech shit is really capable of improving 
lifestyle?

Goddamn marketing. 

Yes, marketing. What empowered civilization into developing is now choking freedom like it 
never did before because now marketing learned to take advantage of computers too.
Is everything behind money itself not your needs.

So, lots of old computers (even smartphones technically can be considered computers) are 
trashed despite the fact they are perfectly working. They don't have enough memory, they are 
slow... Because what runs inside is designed to be slow and huge! How can an instant messaging 
application be supposed to take more memory than an entire operating system?

Because marketing wants you to buy a more capable device to run it spending more money to do 
the VERY SAME thing. With more emoji, icons, colors and bullshit. Because having the last 
version is cool! Trends over needs? Is what assholes wants to be able to enslave the others.

How much pollution is behind designing, manufacturing, packaging, transporting, selling, 
repairing and disposing of your old and slow device?

Users are responsible of all of this shit. DEVELOPERS DOUBLY SO! Manufacturers even more!!!

Developers are responsible of every anti-feature that affect devices: reinventing the wheel, 
bloating, (mis)use of proprietary parts, unneeded features, shitty user interface redesign and 
so on... Getting rid of this shit is nothing easy that can be done with a shovel since 
electronic devices are made of pollutant chemicals.

Exactly, something like lead, mercury, plastic polymers, solder fluxes, and the like can't be 
trashed, forgotten and then bought again and again because is going always to end in the very 
same way.

Of course nothing can stop the life cycle of a machine but it's repeating too fast in the last 
years and in order to keep this world and this society a bit less shitty it's necessary to 
slow it down.

Computers are meant to be modular so develop in a modular way. Don't force people to get 
everything or nothing. Computers are meant to be users' tools. Not the opposite. There are 
important and basic tasks can be done even without recent and powerful computers so, as long 
there is no a real reason to update shit keep supporting old devices. That's another reason we 
got international standards.

Solene wrote: "I would like to see my hobby affordable for anyone."
I'd rather say: "I want to see the noble computer science be a mean to grow anyone's 
life with new opportunities not just a mean to fill landfills and corporations' bank accounts."

Never stop looking around you. The most dangerous ones are those who never question themselves.
And I will never throw my old equipment in the trash because of them.